Читать книгу The Wine Etiquette Guide - Your Defense Against Wine Snobbery - Chuck Blethen - Страница 16

“It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.”

- Heraclitus (540 BC - 480 BC), On the Universe

When you are trying to get everyone’s attention at a dinner party, do not clang your silverware on the side of a glass or plate. Banging your wineglass with a knife is quite uncouth. A loud whistle doesn’t do it properly either.

The best way is to speak up. Stand up with your wine glass in hand and say “Ladies and gentlemen! May I have your attention, please!” Allow a few seconds for everyone to stop what they are doing and turn their attention to you. Then lift your glass by the stem in the direction of the person(s) you are toasting with a motion that is an outward and upward arc until you can just barely see the toasted person’s eyes across the top of your glass. (Don’t lift your glass as if you are pointing to the ceiling in the famous Statue of Liberty stance.) “Here’s to my best friend, Bill, and his fiancée, Jill. May they continue to share their joy.” Then pull the glass back towards your lips and take a sip.

Everyone in the group who is raising their glass by the stem to toast should lift their glass in a like manner in the direction of the toasted person (not towards the person making the toast). Then take a sip at the same time as the person offering the toast.

If you are the person being toasted, it is proper to raise your glass by the stem in a similar fashion to the person(s) offering the toast, but do not take a sip (you will be toasting yourself). Immediately follow up with your own toast to the toaster and/or your friends and then you take a sip. (See Appendix C for famous - and infamous – toasts.)